Under state election law, Penn's 2002 re-election PAC, which was terminated shortly before his death, could not write more checks. And since it was a candidate committee, it is banned from supporting the EEPAC. It also should have reported distributing the surplus.

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James Dancy, treasurer for Penn's PAC, said he had been seriously ill and failed to notice bank statements over several years showing the PAC's savings were not liquidated.

In an interview, Dancy, a 76-year-old real estate manager, said he finally opened the statements two years ago and found that people who received checks from the PAC for services apparently never cashed them. So, wanting to keep the money in the city, Dancy got some legal advice and decided to give the EEPAC $4,549.99 on Feb. 21 rather than donate it to the state's voluntary public-financing program.

"As treasurer, after Alvin died I closed out the committee as normal by paying out the bills and made a final report," Dancy said. "Shortly thereafter I had a heart attack and cancer." He didn't return to work in downtown Bridgeport, where the PAC was registered, for about two years. It was six years before he finally opened a bank statement, he said.

"I came by our former office a few times, saw that some Penn financial statements had been stacking up, but they didn't mean anything because I thought they zeroed out," Dancy said.

Among other things, the EEPAC has recently written Finch's campaign a $50 check for Ford to attend a fundraising event for the mayor.

"I find that a very dubious explanation," said Michele Mount, Foster's legal adviser, in reaction to Dancy's statements. "He hadn't seen a bank statement in six years?"

Ford said Friday his PAC created an anti-Foster flier, which features a photo of Finch with President Barack Obama, but he hasn't yet received the printing bill.

Nancy Nicolescu, communications and legislative program director for the elections commission, said that the case appears murky because campaign finance law was "much different" before the 2005 legislative reforms.